Jiang Ming finished cultivating, put away the Yin-Yang Reversal Little Heaven-Covering Formation, and had refined two-thirds of the good things he had eaten. He treated the remainder as reserves stored in his stomach. Once he refined everything, his stomach felt empty, and Jiang Ming did not like that sensation.
After thinking it over, he decided to first take a look at the Earthly Realm of Spirit Ruins Grotto-Heaven. This place was still considered within the boundaries of the Earthly Realm of Smoke Glow Grotto-Heaven.
He did not choose to fly on his sword. That consumed too much true essence, and Jiang Ming's cultivation was still too low.
However, his current physique gave him more than ten times the true essence he had possessed at the same realm in his previous life.
That was the benefit of possessing a powerful physique.
Still, Jiang Ming could use the Immortal Wind Cloud Body Art to travel. It was a spell technique that could also serve as a movement art, allowing him to swiftly weave through the wilderness.
At the first level of the Qi Refining Stage, one's spiritual sense covered a radius of thirty meters.
At the second level of Qi Refining, it covered a radius of sixty meters.
At the third level of Qi Refining, it could reach a radius of one hundred meters.
As for Jiang Ming, at the sixth level of Qi Refining, his spiritual sense should theoretically have covered a radius of two hundred meters.
Yet Jiang Ming's spiritual sense had reached a radius of five hundred meters.
Logically speaking, with the Primordial Spirit from his previous life, this little spiritual sense was hardly worth mentioning.
But after awakening his memories, Jiang Ming discovered that he retained only those memories. The power of his original Primordial Spirit no longer existed at all.
No matter what, though, his spiritual sense already gave him a major advantage.
With the memories of Chinese Paladin from his previous life and his current powerful physique, Jiang Ming would soon grow stronger.
Jiang Ming traveled quickly. Every leap, every burst of momentum, carried him more than six hundred zhang.
In other words, every time he borrowed force and used the Immortal Wind Cloud Body Art, he swept nearly four li away like a gust of wind.
Traveling eight hundred li in succession took him only around ten minutes.
After all, each full circulation of his cultivation technique took around four seconds.
Naturally, such rapid travel could not be sustained for too long.
With Jiang Ming's cultivation, he could endure it for at most ten hours.
Honestly, his former self could only keep it up for one hour at a time.
All of this was thanks to his physique.
"Phew."
He had reached the edge of the Primordial Ruins. Passing through this border region meant covering just two hundred li, and the Earthly Realm of Spirit Ruins Grotto-Heaven lay on the other side.
He had chosen this route mainly so he could train in the outskirts of the Primordial Ruins along the way, killing some demon beasts and gathering spiritual herbs.
The Primordial Ruins had mysterious origins. They were relics left behind from the Desolate Ancient Era.
Moreover, the Primordial Ruins themselves were vast and boundless, stretching endlessly onward. The six Cave-Heaven Paradises of the Yan Kingdom were all located around them, and those six Cave-Heaven Paradises were merely a part of it. The Primordial Ruins still held many secrets that had yet to be unearthed, while vast tracts of land remained unexplored and uncleared.
This ruin was filled with opportunities, accompanied by death. Looking within, ancient trees towered overhead, old vines twisted everywhere, and the roars and cries of all kinds of rare birds and exotic beasts rang without end.
Of course, many rare spiritual herbs also grew here. This was the favorite place for the disciples and elders of the six Cave-Heaven Paradises to explore. The six Cave-Heaven Paradises had originally been established amid these ruins, like fields and forests burned clean by wildfire that would sooner or later sprout even lusher vegetation.
Rebirth after destruction—this boundless land had never lacked stories.
With a thought, Jiang Ming transformed directly into a golden-furred ape with six ears. That was right, he had used the Seventy-Two Transformations to become a Six-Eared Macaque. This way, he could borrow part of the Six-Eared Macaque's innate gifts.
His comprehension of the Seventy-Two Transformations was quite deep, allowing him to borrow sixty percent of the talents of a Six-Eared Macaque at the same cultivation level.
That meant a Six-Eared Macaque roughly as strong as him could, at this realm, probably hear things two hundred li away.
And thanks to his sufficiently profound understanding of the treasure technique Seventy-Two Transformations, Jiang Ming could also hear sounds from one hundred and twenty li away.
With such a talent enhancing him, his safety while traveling through the Primordial Ruins greatly increased.
Jiang Ming secretly marveled to himself. He roughly knew which world the Seventy-Two Transformations treasure technique he had obtained came from. It was likely connected to Perfect World. Wasn't the ferocious beast Zhu Yan the Primordial Red-Rumped Divine Ape?
Different regions simply called it by different names.
During his comprehension of the Seventy-Two Transformations treasure technique, he had experienced the rise to power and eventual despair of a Zhu Yan that had reached the Supreme Realm.
Unfortunately, aside from the Seventy-Two Transformations treasure technique, he had forgotten all other details.
Still, bolstered by the talents of this ancient ferocious beast, Jiang Ming felt that he had become a Six-Eared Macaque of impure Primordial Species bloodline. Every rustle of wind and grass in his surroundings entered his ears, leaving nothing able to hide.
Jiang Ming's six ears received waves of sounds from the surrounding area, allowing him to determine where barbaric beasts and unusual birds could be hunted, and where powerful exotic beasts and spiritual birds roamed so he could avoid them in advance.
The heartbeats and flowing blood of those fierce barbaric beasts and unusual birds that ruled this region sounded in Jiang Ming's six ears like pounding drums and rushing rivers. He could easily judge their strength from their different frequencies. This was an innate instinct of the Six-Eared Macaque race.
Soon, Jiang Ming's eyes lit up. He had not expected such an unexpected gain from coming here.
Within a hundred li of him, Jiang Ming heard something interesting. There was not only a fight, but also something valuable: the Nine-Leaf Phoenix Divine Herb.
This herb could only grow where Phoenix blood had once fallen, turning the land into a pure realm capable of nurturing such a rare and extraordinary plant.
As for calling it a divine herb, the more ignorant people were, the more prone they were to exaggerating the names of spiritual treasures born of heaven and earth.
For example, ordinary mortals could not help calling cultivators Immortals when they saw them.
Of course, this herb was actually only equivalent to a five-hundred-year spiritual medicine. Its sole precious quality was that it might contain a trace of Phoenix aura, granting benefits such as prolonging life, cleansing the marrow and remolding the meridians, and healing injuries.
"You rogue cultivators, withdraw at once. I'll pretend nothing happened today. Otherwise, bear the consequences yourselves. Think carefully—Spirit Ruins Grotto-Heaven has cultivators of the Other Shore Realm stationed here. Finding you would not be difficult.
"Spiritual medicine may be good, but your lives are more important."
A sinister, hoarse, ear-piercing voice spoke, like the sound of rusted machinery grinding into motion.
"Han Bugua, as a cultivator of Spirit Ruins Grotto-Heaven, you committed such shameless acts. You ambushed us rogue cultivators and used our lives to scout the way for you.
"At the critical moment, you stabbed us in the back and injured our brother. Now you want to easily obtain the Nine-Leaf Phoenix Divine Herb? Not a chance."
"That's right, Han Bugua. Why make it so clear? Are you trying to pressure us with your status? At worst, after this job, we brothers will flee far away and leave the Yan Kingdom."
"Elder Han, if you don't hand over something today, I'm afraid this matter won't end peacefully."
On the other side stood three people dressed differently. Judging by their auras, one of them was actually a Life Spring cultivator.
That made sense. Unless someone was exceptionally gifted, possessed a special bloodline or physique, and had powerful secret arts or supreme techniques, fighting across realms was nearly impossible. The gap between Sea of Bitterness cultivators and Life Spring cultivators was enormous.
Jiang Ming knew the original plot. Ye Fan, the Desolate Ancient Sacred Body, had clearly entered the Sea of Bitterness Realm and become a Sea of Bitterness cultivator, but because he had lacked suitable secret arts and divine abilities at the time, he had almost no ability to resist when he encountered Elder Han. He had been captured and nearly used as a medicinal catalyst by that old man Han to refine pills.
It had to be said that fate was truly mysterious. He had been looking for his dear friend Elder Han, yet he had actually found him.
Being an ape was wonderfully strange.
Could it be because he had transformed into a six-eared ape?
Even taking detours around dangerous areas, Jiang Ming needed only three minutes to cover the hundred li.
This was what rogue cultivators were like.
He saw that the three rogue cultivators were all white-haired old men. They wore metal armor over their clothes and carried weapons on their backs, looking like martial artists of the jianghu.
With a sweep of the Six-Eared Macaque's Fiery Golden Eyes, he saw that the armor was made from refined gold painstakingly extracted in tiny amounts from fine iron. This was the clumsy method ordinary cultivators used when they wanted to refine magic artifacts.
A thousand jin of fine iron could yield only one tael of refined gold.
Ten taels made one jin.
Furthermore, refined gold was only the lowest-grade material for refining magic artifacts. It was not only heavy, but its effectiveness and durability in artifact refinement were merely average.
But there was no helping it. The path of cultivation had always been incomparably difficult. Wealth, companions, methods, land, luck, and more were all indispensable.
Ordinary cultivators could only rely on clumsy methods.
The elder on the left wore black beneath golden armor.
The elder in the middle wore gray beneath blue-gold armor, with a little Azure Light Gold added to the refined gold.
Azure Light Gold, Star-Pattern Iron, Black Obsidian Iron, and Yimu Heartwood were materials of the same grade.
The old woman on the right wore green robes. Blue starlike patterns flowed across her golden armor, so a small piece of Star-Pattern Iron had definitely been added.
Looking at their weapons—saber, spear, and sword—they had all been forged from painstakingly refined gold. A faint blue glow flowed along the saber edge, spearhead, and sword edge, also due to Star-Pattern Iron having been added during refinement.
The defining trait of Star-Pattern Iron was its greater sharpness and armor-piercing ability.
Within their Seas of Bitterness, each of them also possessed one or two magic artifacts as hidden trump cards.
Of course, Elder Han's side was far more lavish. Within his Sea of Bitterness were twelve Greenwood Sword magic artifacts.
These were ritual swords refined from the heartwood of a Jade Ghost Tree with three hundred years of cultivation.
In terms of quality, they were no worse than ritual swords refined with Star-Pattern Iron.
If one had to classify them more precisely, they could be called mid-grade magic artifacts.
This old man was only about one meter sixty tall. His body was hunched and skeletal, like withered wood.
His hair hung loose, and his snow-white locks covered his face, making his features impossible to see. He looked like a sinister and venomous ghost, an ancient corpse deep in the mountains. Even the green hemp robe he wore was a magic artifact, woven and refined from the hide of a Ramie Demon with two hundred years of cultivation.
It could withstand the attacks of ordinary Life Spring cultivators without its defenses being breached, making it a mid-grade treasure garment magic artifact.
It was not something refined-gold armor could compare to. That armor could at most be considered a low-grade magic artifact.
With his current equipment alone, he already crushed the other three rogue cultivators.